Fall of Saigon

The Fall of Saigon occurred on 30 April 1975 when North Vietnamese and Viet Cong communist forces entered the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon, ending the Vietnam War and reunifying Vietnam.

Following the Battle of Xuan Loc on 21 April 1975, Saigon was wide open to the advancing NVA and their local Viet Cong allies, and the North Vietnamese began their first rocket strikes against Saigon on 27 April 1975. On 29 April, after a massive artillery bombardment which mauled Nguyen Van Toan's ARVN forces and cratered the Tan Son Nhut Air Base (killing two US Marine Corps soldiers, Charles McMahon and Darwin Judge, the last two Americans to die in Vietnam), cutting off the aerial escape of any ARVN forces. The Americans launched Operation Frequent Wind to evacuate their remaining personnel in the country and some South Vietnamese collaborators from the US embassy, totalling 5,000 evacuees airlifted to the US Seventh Fleet by helicopter. Shortly after the US evacuation on the morning of 30 April, NVA and Viet Cong forces advanced into the city, and NVA tanks smashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace. The President of South Vietnam, Duong Van Minh, called on all ARVN troops to stop fighting and allow for a peaceful transition of power, preventing a bloodbath. In the afternoon of 30 April 1975, NVA troops flying Viet Cong flags raised their flag over the Presidential Palace, and the city was renamed "Ho Chi Minh City" in honor of the late communist leader.